The Constable Who Shot a Boy

Mat Puryear, the Black man who was formerly a constable at Newcastle, and who on August 15 shot Ed Welch, an 18-year-old white boy, in the heel, claiming he felt justified by an attempt to escape from arrest, was yesterday convicted in Judge Humes' court of assault with a deadly weapon. The story told by Puryear and his two witnesses was that he had arrested Welch on suspicion of being a boy who had escaped from the Oregon reform school. Welch, who lived close to Newcastle, at first submitted, but broke loose and attempted to flee. Puryear drew his revolver and 'took aim,' as a witness put it, at the fugitive. One of the balls took effect in the boy's heel. The white population of the camp had little affection for the Black miners and were loud in their complaints regarding Puryear's free use of his gun, and Puryear did not stay long in the area afterward. When finally arrested in Renton, Puryear admitted the shooting but pleaded his ignorance of the law.